For Better or For Worse
by nevthebunny
Summary: 'Almost every night Audrey Weasley would wish that someone could see her husband as she did.' After the battle of Hogwarts Percy battles with guilt and depression. Audrey/Percy. George/Angelina Now a twoshot.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N I got tired of everyone hating on Percy, controversial, I know. This is a little dark in places, just to warn. **

**Disclaimer: I STILL don't own HP.**

Almost every night Audrey Weasley would wish. She wished upon every star that someone, just one person, could see her husband as she did.

The papers called him 'the black sheep in a family of heroes' at the nicest. She had also seen him referred to in a much more negative light: 'a coward' and 'undeserving of his family's love' were commonplace phrases regarding him and there had been one particularly out of order journalist who decided he should have died in the battle. (Audrey had not only complained about this, she had sued and got not only a printed apology but the sacking of the person in question.)

Unfortunately, the papers were not the only ones to think he should have been the Weasley to die. Percy himself definitely believed it. In her world he would have been diagnosed with depression by now but in the Wizarding World they just didn't believe in illnesses like that.

Almost every night, Percy would have nightmares. He would then stay awake all night, crying silently. Audrey hadn't discovered this until eleven months after the battle; he would hide away in his flat, letting no one in. Even now he refused to let her help him, claiming that he deserved it.

This night was a particularly bad one. Percy was yelling and slamming his arm on the wall whilst she stood there trying to console him.

"Percy, please," she begged.

Suddenly he raised his hand. He was going to hit her. She shrieked and ran into the guest room, slamming the door behind her. She slid down the wall, crying whilst in her head she began to recite her list: her list of why this was worth it.

The thumping stopped. Gingerly, Audrey tiptoed back into their bedroom to find her husband curled up in a ball in the corner. He sensed her come in and raised his tear-stained face.

"I'm so sorry," he said quietly. "I'm so sorry for everything." He began to cry again and she crossed the room, engulfing him in a hug.

"Listen to me," she said. "I love you. You don't need to be sorry."

"You shouldn't have married me. You deserve better than this. You deserve better than me."

Shaking her head, Audrey stood up and extracted a faded piece of paper from under her pillow.

"I've never met anyone better," she told him. "This is my list that I made after you asked me to marry you. It has all of my reasons."

Percy unfolded the paper and gazed in shock and the seemingly endless list. He caught a glimpse of _1. He's modest _and _2. He acknowledges his mistakes_ before his wife snatched the paper away and turned it over, pointing to the last two reasons.

"I would have married you even if these were the only reasons on the list," she admitted.

He looked at them: _432. He saved me. 433. I love him._

It seemed he was yet again on the verge of tears.

"You see? I don't deserve you," he cried helplessly.

"Really?" she asked him. "Is this just because of one incident, one little mistake that happened years ago, before I even met you? That's why you think you don't deserve me; because you had an argument with your father and picked the wrong side."

"Exactly!"

"But you didn't, Percy. You never became a Death Eater, did you?"

Percy exclaimed, "No!" in shock.

Audrey nodded. "You tried to get out as soon as you realised you were wrong. You got stuck working for an evil man in a corrupt place but you still worked undercover for a splinter group of the DA. You could have been killed for that. You fed information and you saved muggles and muggle-borns alike. So many people owe you their lives, including me. And then, at the end you went back to your family. You apologised to them like a man and took everything that they accused you of. You accepted what you'd done and more! Then you fought in the battle and avenged your brother's death. How can you still look at yourself and think you don't deserve me? What have I ever done to deserve you?" she exclaimed.

Yet her husband still shook his head. "It should have been me. Fred was younger and a better person..."

The stem of Percy's self-hatred suddenly dawned on Audrey and anger churned inside of her.

"George. George has said these things to you, hasn't he?"

Percy nodded. "But he's right! I..."

"I'm talking to him tomorrow! After everything you've done for him, Percy, can't you see? He's not blaming you because it's your fault, he's blaming you because he can't find anyone else to blame! Why can't he see that you are hurting just as much as he is?"

When she noticed that her husband was looking a little frightened by her anger, she softened.

"Where did the Sorting Hat put you, Percy?"

He looked confused but replied, "Gryffindor, but I never really belonged there. It made a mistake. My siblings should have been there but I..."

Audrey silenced him with a look.

"What are the traits of Gryffindor?" she asked.

"Daring, nerve, chivalry and courage," he answered instantly.

"Right," she nodded. "You acted as a spy within the tight security of the Ministry. That was daring. What's the most daring thing George has done?"

Percy began to protest.

"Answer the question."

"He bombed Hogwarts with fireworks and escaped on a broomstick whilst Umbridge was in charge," he told her.

"While that's very daring, it wasn't half as risky," Audrey said. "And chivalry. I think saving all those people from the registration committee counts for that, not to mention fighting in the battle..."

"George fought in the battle too," Percy argued.

"True. Then there's courage. You are the bravest man I know, Percy. Whether right or wrong, everything you've done since you left school has been brave."

Something in Percy's eyes let Audrey know she had finally got through to him. He was finally starting to believe in himself. She rose again and pulled him to his feet. Sneaking through the curtains were the tiniest slivers of light. She pulled them back dynamically to reveal a beautiful sunrise.

"Look at me," she smiled. "It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, Percy Weasley. I will always love you and you will always be my hero."

He pulled her close to him. "At least now I know what I did to deserve you," he jested quietly.

It may not have been an outright cure. There were still nights when Audrey Weasley would wish but they were fewer and further between. Percy noticed a change in the way George was treating him too, though Audrey swore she had nothing to do with it. Small steps, she thought, as she gazed into the beginning of the new day. Take small steps and he'll be just fine.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Here's a spontaneous second chapter of this. I wanted to explore Percy and George a bit more. If you have any ideas where this fic could go, please send me a review or PM and I'd be happy to consider them. **

**Disclaimer: JKR's amazing characters and ideas, I'm just playing with them for no profit.**

Angelina put down the laundry she was folding and put her hands on her hips. "I'm honestly just really disappointed in you, George. I thought you and Percy were getting on well nowadays."

They were having an argument. Just that morning a fellow Weasley wife (well, Angelina was a wife-to-be) had tipped Angelina off to the way George had been treating her spouse.

"Oh please!" George retorted angrily. "Yeah, okay, we're being more civil than we've ever been; we're adults, Angelina! That doesn't mean I've forgiven him. He's still an arrogant, uncaring..."

Slap. There was a crack as Angelina's hand made contact with George's face.

"I thought you were making progress, George!" she shouted tearfully. "I was so proud of you but it looks like I was wrong. You still aren't making an effort! Have you even spoken to Percy recently?"

"Why would I?" George asked, rubbing his face.

Angelina took a deep breath before replying. "Because he's your brother. He's been through just as much as you have and he doesn't deserve to be treated this way. If that's how you treat your brother, I'm not sure I want to be your wife," she hissed before sweeping out of the door.

* * *

><p>The bell in George's shop rang as a new customer entered. The owner didn't bother to look up from the orders he was working on until the newcomer reached the desk.<p>

"George," he said tentatively.

"What do you want?" George snapped in return.

"I... I just came to see how you were doing..." Percy stuttered.

"Fine. Bye," was the short reply.

"George, please talk to me. I... I don't deserve to be blocked out like this. I want to be your brother."

The younger of the two slammed his accounts book shut loudly, causing several customers to jump.

"Well I don't want you to be!" he exclaimed. "Get it into your fat head, Percy. I don't want you around. I don't like you. I don't respect you and I sure as hell don't forgive you. Oh, and you can thank your bloody useless Muggle of a wife for making my fiancée leave me over this. Just another one of the ways you are slowly ruining my life. Now get out of my shop!"

If it weren't for Audrey's calming words, Percy would have had another bad spell that night.

* * *

><p>"Mother," Percy greeted Molly distantly.<p>

"Percy, dear," she smiled. "Hello Audrey. Do come in, dears. You know you don't have to knock. This is your home."

"Yes, Mother," Percy attempted to smile.

Just at that moment, Percy's younger brother burst through the door behind them.

Noticing who was the in room he muttered, "Percy," with as much venom as he could muster and nodded at his mother.

"Mum."

"George," she tried to smile at him.

"Ange isn't coming," he fumed. "She's being an idiot."

Without stopping to chat he stormed into the house.

Molly sighed. "It's such a shame he and Angelina have had this little fight," she said to her third child. "He's so much more positive when she's around. I wonder what it is that's brought them down..."

Percy hastily excused himself, Audrey hurrying to catch up.

It wasn't much later that Percy found himself sitting in the living room alone. His brother-in-law surreptitiously slid into a seat beside him.

"Percy," Harry began, startling him. "Can I just say something to you?"

Percy nodded cautiously, naturally dreading whatever abuse this next conversation held.

"I only know what Angelina's told Ginny about this whole business with George," Harry continued. "But I want you to know I think you're right. I'm sorry he's being such an idiot."

Surprised, the ginger raised his head questioningly before lowering it again.

"No," he shook his head. "I deserve every word of it. I've done some terrible things. I don't deserve George's forgiveness."

"The world isn't split into bad people and people who supported Dumbledore any more than it's split into good people and death eaters, Percy," Harry said softly. "Remember that. You've made some bad choices, yes. You've also made some good ones that can't have been easy. Think about it."

Harry smiled and left him in the room thinking over what he had just been told.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile Ginny took a slightly more direct approach.<p>

"George, you're being a jarvey mouth."

"Good to see you too, sis."

"I mean it!" Ginny exclaimed. "And I'm pretty sure you must have realised it if it's serious enough to make Angelina leave you."

George shot an icy glare in his sister's direction. "She'll come round. She's just being over-sensitive. How I feel about my brother is none of her concern."

Ginny bit back a retort about how it would be when she was his wife, figuring Angelina would already have mentioned it and settled instead for a very low blow.

"Who was the first of us to forgive him, George?" she asked quietly. "What would he think of how you're acting?"

* * *

><p>"Percy."<p>

Just as the more ambitious Weasley had given up and was making to leave he heard his brother's voice behind him.

"I'll catch you up," he told his wife, though she couldn't go anywhere without him. "George."

"I'm sorry," George quivered. "I was wrong... I was..."

"A jarvey mouth, a pompous prat, a family-ignoring moron?" asked Percy quietly with a hint of humour and George knew he was forgiven.

"Yes I was," he replied calmly.

"Aren't we all?" Percy smiled to him, though he couldn't prevent the lone tear from slipping out.

"I've missed you, big brother," George said tearfully. "Ever since you went to Hogwarts."

"Me too," Percy nodded.

Swiftly each brother hurried towards the other as the biggest bear-hug passed between them.

"Please don't leave me again," George said in a muffled voice.

"Please don't let me," Percy sobbed.

Watching from the window, a couple smiled to one another.

"Team Potter?" asked one, holding out her hand.

"Team Potter," the other agreed, high-fiving it.

* * *

><p>She came back non-dramatically, just coming home from work as normal. As soon as he saw her his heart lifted.<p>

"Angelina, I..."

She stopped him. "I'm sorry, that was unfair to you."

She hugged him. "I love you and I'm so proud of you. That was a big step. From now on I promise I'll support you."

"Even when I get like that?" he asked. "Even when I'm wrong?"

"Even then," she smiled. "I'm taking you for better and for worse, George Weasley, so we'd better get used to it."


End file.
